April 10, 2026Signs of renewed military involvement in civilian life are raising concerns that Indonesia may be drifting back towards the authoritarian practices of its past.

Imagine you’ve seen a street skirmish and call the police. A brief chat reveals the brawlers are off-duty soldiers. They continue to throw punches and rocks. The cops drive away.

The policy was dwifungsi (an adopted loanword), and it ran throughout Indonesia during the 32-year authoritarian rule of the second president, Soeharto, a former general.

At the top was the army – at the bottom the police.

Dwifungsi was dismantled during the Reformation in 2000 by the fourth President, Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur), now deceased.

A liberal Islamic scholar, he understood the importance of restricting the military to defence and separating it from the police role of domestic peacekeeping.

It hasn’t been an easy transition. Turf wars, access to power and rivalries continue.

Khairul Fahmi, a military analyst at the Institute for Security and Strategic Studies_,_ attributed the recurring clashes between the two forces to “institutional arrogance, a culture of superiority, sectoral egotism, and festering jealousies, dynamics that have grown unchecked.

“Much of the rivalry stems from competition for ‘fertile grounds’ of influence across civil society, bureaucracy, and even parliament.”

Stories of inter-service punch-ups had become ho-hum till a street acid-attack last month in Jakarta on prominent human rights activist Andrie Yunus as he left a legal aid office.

He was badly burned on his face, hands, and chest, covering 24 per cent of his body. He’s been in intensive care, and his family is in protection.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said he was “deeply concerned” with the attack. Four soldiers from an intelligence unit have allegedly been detained, according to military police commander Yusri Nuryanto.

A decade earlier, a former policeman turned corruption investigator, Novel Baswedan, was walking home from his local mosque in North Jakarta when two men threw acid at his face. He lost an eye.

After more than two years of investigation and a presidential order to find the assailants, he was reported as saying the police were “not really serious in handling his case.”

Two active police officers were convicted and jailed for a year. Novel’s supporters said they were scapegoats and the Mr Big had escaped identification.

Inquiries into the March attack on Andrie suggested the two assailants on a motorbike were soldiers and ordered to send a warning to civilian critics of the return of dwifungsi.

  According to the nation’s leading daily, Kompas, “the shadow of the military’s return to dominance in civilian governance is now increasingly apparent. A total of 2,500 active TNI (Military) personnel have quietly taken up civilian positions, a figure that exceeds the limits set by law.

“If the revision of the TNI Law currently being discussed by the DPR (Parliament) is passed, the last barrier to military involvement in civilian bureaucracy will collapse.

“Not only that, but soldiers will also be given the opportunity to engage in business activities, blurring the clear line that has long separated the military from economic and political interests.”

The California-based Asia Sentinel magazine is warning of “the Darkening Face of Indonesia’s Democracy.

“Reports of intimidation and terror directed at activists, legislative initiatives widely seen as constraining press freedom, and, perhaps most strikingly, the reactivation of military command structures at the regional level.

“… these developments evoke the territorial military influence that defined Indonesia’s authoritarian past, raising urgent questions about whether the country is gradually retreating from the democratic gains achieved since 1998.”

The present President Prabowo Subianto is the former son-in-law of the late Soeharto. He’s known to want the military in civil affairs, as soldiers are trained to follow orders and not challenge.

Personal loyalty is critical in the armed forces; fine in a firefight, though not in professional administrations demanding impartiality.

After the acid splash, Prabowo told some selected journos (not this one) that the attack on Andrie Yunus was a “barbaric act of terrorism” that demands a comprehensive investigation into its masterminds.

“This is terrorism. This is a barbaric act. We must pursue it. We must investigate it! We must find out who ordered it, who paid for it.”

He explicitly guaranteed that no “impunity” would be granted if security personnel are found complicit, vowing that legal proceedings will be conducted strictly and impartially.

Sounds like the right response, except this is Indonesia. The two previous incumbents of the Presidential Palace said much the same thing about the most blatant assassination since the Reformation.

In  2004, lawyer Munir Said Thalib, founder of KontraS, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, was poisoned on a Garuda flight while heading to Utrecht University to study for a master’s degree in international law and human rights.

A post-mortem found he died from arsenic in an orange drink. He perished before landing. Then President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (another former general) promised Munir’s widow, Suciwati, that the assassination would be thoroughly investigated. It wasn’t.

KontraS is struggling to reopen the case, but there’s no political commitment. This is not a time for Indonesian activists to move about unprotected. Correction: It never has been.The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.

Duncan Graham has been a journalist for more than 40 years in print, radio and TV. He is the author of People Next Door (UWA Press). He is now writing for the English language media in Indonesia from within Indonesia. Duncan Graham has an MPhil degree, a Walkley Award, two Human Rights Commission awards and other prizes for his radio, TV and print journalism in Australia. He lives in East Java.

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IIndonesia’s claims of rice self-sufficiency clash with import deals, opaque data and the growing political control of the food system.

Rice isn’t just a meal for half the world. In Indonesia it’s also an essential ingredient in national sovereignty – and big money deals. Mao Zedong was wrong about “all political power growing out of the barrel of a gun.” In Indonesia it grows in the paddy.

Are all Indonesians now dining on their own home-grown rice with not one imported grain, as the government says? If so, it’s a stunning achievement towards self-sufficiency directed by President Prabowo Subianto and a great boost to national pride.

It should also lead to lower prices.

But is it true?

The rice trade is controlled by the State-owned monopoly and public corporation, Bulog, Badan Urusan Logistik (Logistics Affairs Agency). It runs grain depots around the country and sets the floor price, currently Rp 6,500 (AUD 52 cents) a kilo.

Overall Indonesia produces about 55 million tonnes a year and is the world’s fourth largest grower.

Bulog is the principal source of data on crops, plantings and deliveries. It’s an agency with a record of alleged corruption, mainly concerning illegal sales.

This year it “absorbed” the equivalent of 840,000 tonnes of rice – representing a 2,000 per cent increase from the same period last year. This happened despite major flooding, particularly in Sumatra.

Even assuming yields have been boosted by better cultivation, new varieties and fertilisers, this figure is so astonishing that it deserves scrutiny. So far, the Indonesian media and academic researchers have found better meals elsewhere.

Apart from keeping food on the table, there’s another agenda: to manage everything in the food business and put the Prez in charge without waving a weapon.

Bulog, formerly a civilian agency, is now being run by the Army. Major General Ahmad Rizal Ramdhani was appointed last year. He said his job was to “transform the state-owned food company into a major autonomous body directly under the President.

“The hope is that, in line with the President’s wishes, Bulog will return to its former glory, like it did in (the Soeharto era). Bulog shouldn’t just be managing rice, but managing everything, so as to guarantee food self-sufficiency.”

Soeharto, Indonesia’s second president, died in 2008. He was also a former general. For a time his son-in-law was Prabowo.

Last year Ahmad’s predecessor Lieutenant Novi Helmi Prasetya lasted four months as Bulog’s boss. No reason was given for his return to the ranks.

Bulog’s warehouses reportedly hold 2.4 million tonnes, a figure that could rise to three million by the end of the month, potentially marking a new national record. New depots are planned.

The Indonesian NGO Prakarsa (Initiative), “an institution for research and policy advocacy” in Jakarta , reported that in the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade signed with the US in February, Indonesia had “committed to importing 1,000 tonnes of rice.

“Quantitatively, the figure appears small … however, this commitment has sparked controversy. Indonesia, while claiming a rice surplus, is locking in rice imports from countries that are not major global rice producers.

“This is where the question arises: does the food import commitment in the trade agreement erode the food self-sufficiency and sovereignty that has been touted so far?”

In 2024, Indonesia imported 4.52 million tons of rice, a 47 per cent increase from more than three million tonnes the previous year.

A sudden surplus of more than four million tonnes in 2025 looks curious, particularly when credited to Prabowo during his first year in office.

Former presidents also promised – and failed – to make the nation self-sufficient in foods.

Since 2008, when the population was 240 million, Indonesia has imported rice, mainly from Vietnam and Thailand, to ensure the staple ingredient is always available.

Any dearth could lead to food riots, as at the turn of the century, when the nation’s crops were damaged by the El Niño drought.

The other factor in poor harvests at the time was Krismon – the economic crisis caused by student riots and the dethroning of the autocratic second president, Soeharto.

The population is now 285 million. Land available for cultivating the grain has shrunk as roads, industry, and housing have moved onto the flattest areas in an archipelago of mountains.

According to Indonesia Corruption Watch_,_ Bulog originally served as a food provider and distributor for the people.

“With broader authority, including price stabilisation, supplier selection, and food security, Bulog has become a cash cow. Trillions of rupiah can flow into Bulog at any time.

“Its position as an institution directly under the president allows Bulog to access non-budgetary funds outside the state budget … This makes it difficult for the House of Representatives or the Supreme Audit Agency to access Bulog.

“(Two) former Bulog heads were only able to be investigated after President Soeharto left power. Both were tried and convicted after being found guilty of corruption.

“Bulog had to disburse Rp 40 billion (AUD 3,300) from a non-budgetary account, allegedly for Golkar Party campaign expenses. Bulog will always be a magnet for various political parties and the ruling elite to compete for.”

This month, Bulog claimed its warehouses held 2.4 million tonnes and had enough to start exporting. The often unhusked grain is held in 50 kg sacks and usually has to be lugged on the backs of youths dashing up swaying planks to load trucks. Mechanisation is rare.

It’s then sold to private companies for cleaning, refining and marketing under brands and retailed in five and ten-kilo plastic bags.

During the rule of the first President, Soekarno, Indonesia exported rice with a reputation for high quality. Those glory days are regularly recalled by politicians claiming the nation can be food self-sufficient again.

It has now apparently achieved that goal and given Prabowo’s reputation a big tick.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.

Duncan Graham

Duncan Graham has been a journalist for more than 40 years in print, radio and TV. He is the author of People Next Door (UWA Press). He is now writing for the English language media in Indonesia from within Indonesia. Duncan Graham has an MPhil degree, a Walkley Award, two Human Rights Commission awards and other prizes for his radio, TV and print journalism in Australia. He lives in East Java.

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